


scarves and other warm things

by katierosefun



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Autumn, Birthday, Deleted Scenes, Fluff, Gen, Gift Giving, Happy, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, Missing Scene, they're soft your honor--
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:47:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26543935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katierosefun/pseuds/katierosefun
Summary: Obi-Wan gave Anakin an amused smile. “You came prepared,” he said, taking the bottle.“Don’t sound so surprised,” Anakin said. “You’ll hurt my feelings.”“How foolish of me. Thank you, Anakin.”“You’re welcome.”Anakin and Obi-Wan exchanged a smile.[or: Anakin gives Obi-Wan a  birthday present.]
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 129





	scarves and other warm things

“Well, look who’s awake,” Anakin said, leaning against the holoprojector. He tilted his head to the side. “I think there’s actual color in your face.” He narrowed his eyes. “Actually, no—stand back. It might just be the lights.”

“Is there anything I can help you with, Anakin?” Obi-Wan asked, not looking up from the hologram. His voice, Anakin was relieved to find, wasn’t quite as hoarse or as weak as it had been the last few days. And Anakin had been right—Obi-Wan _did_ look better overall, and save for the slight red at the tip of his nose, he might have almost looked normal. Obi-Wan swiped the diagrams away, tugged back a map instead. “Or are you going to keep staring?”

“Depends.” Anakin looked down at the holoprojector. “What’re you looking at, anyways? We don’t have another mission yet.”

“No,” Obi-Wan said, zooming in on a city on the map. “But we _do_ have reports to file, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Right. Reports.”

“Care to join me? I’m not quite sure if you’ve…”

“I finished them already.”

A lift of Obi-Wan’s eyebrows. “Did you now.”

A moment of silence passed before Anakin said, “Okay, I didn’t, but that’s beside the point—”

“And the point is…”

“The _point_ is that those reports don’t have to be filed right away, and _you_ shouldn’t be celebrating your first day of not being stuck in bed completing reports.” Anakin shut off the holoprojector, ignoring the little huff of annoyance and surprise from Obi-Wan.

“ _Anakin_ —”

“Come on,” Anakin said, pushing himself off the holoprojector. “You can at least finish your reports where it’s…” He looked around the small room. “Brighter. And less stuffy.”

“Says the man who spends hours under his own starfighter,” Obi-Wan said dryly.

“Well, that’s different.”

“And how so?”

“Starfighters are interesting. Reports aren’t.” Anakin gestured out the door. “After you, Master Kenobi.”

Obi-Wan folded his arms over his chest, but he walked out the door. “Am I allowed to ask where we’re going?”

“Courtyard,” Anakin replied. He joined Obi-Wan’s side and glanced over at him. “Look, you’re even dressed for the occasion,” he said, gesturing to the sleeves of Obi-Wan’s cloak. “You were planning on going outside anyways, weren’t you?”

“Yes, but _later_.”

“Now counts as later,” Anakin said cheerfully. He heard a half sigh, a feeble half cough from Obi-Wan, and for a moment, Anakin paused—but Obi-Wan was already dropping his arm from his mouth. Which was better than the last few days, when Anakin’s own chest had hurt listening to Obi-Wan’s coughing fits. This was probably the better alternative. Still, Anakin was glad that he had—for once in his life—thought ahead. He plunged a hand into his own cloak’s pockets, and—nope, that wasn’t what he needed right now—withdrew a water bottle.

Obi-Wan gave Anakin an amused smile. “You came prepared,” he said, taking the bottle.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Anakin said. “You’ll hurt my feelings.”

“How foolish of me. Thank you, Anakin.”

“You’re welcome.”

Anakin and Obi-Wan exchanged a smile.

They made their way to the courtyard eventually. A light breeze passed them by, carrying with it just the distant chill that Anakin had gotten more and more used to with each year. It had confused him when he first came to Coruscant and discovered that there were times when the planet got significantly colder than the rest of the year. Tatooine had seasons, too—but not quite as drastic. Not the kind of seasons that brought the red and gold leaves that fluttered to the ground at the center of the courtyard.

There were a few other people lingering in the courtyard, too. A few older masters sitting on the grass, reading or meditating. A small group of younglings were playing some kind of game that involved acrobatics. They laughed as they eventually collapsed into a small heap of leaves and limbs.

They found an unoccupied bench closer to one of the trees in the courtyard—a tree that had turned into a brilliant shade of red and dropped five-pointed leaves.

“Well?” Anakin asked, leaning back against the bench. “This was a good idea, right?”

“You seem to keep forgetting that I was going to come out here _eventually_.”

“It would have gotten colder later,” Anakin replied, burying his hands in his cloak pockets. He tilted his head back in time to see a leaf spiraling down to him. He lifted a hand in time to catch it before it could fall on his face. Holding up the leaf by the stem, Anakin turned to Obi-Wan. “ _Acer rubrum_.”

A corner of Obi-Wan’s lips twitched. “I didn’t know you knew your trees.”

“Don’t worry,” Anakin said, setting the leaf down between them. “I’ll forget it tomorrow. Consider it a…” Nope, he couldn’t say that yet.

Anakin cleared his throat and looked around the courtyard.

“You mean to tell me you only know _this_ tree out of all the ones here?” Obi-Wan asked after some time. He had caught another flyaway leaf, added it on top of the one Anakin had set down.

“Well, yeah.” Anakin looked down at the two leaves between them. They didn’t quite match—no two leaves were quite the same, he had learned. The one Obi-Wan had picked was slightly smaller than the one Anakin had picked, and it was a lighter shade of red and slightly dotted with past rain. “My brain can only hold so much information.”

“I doubt that.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Anakin replied, calling on the Force to float down another leaf.

Obi-Wan made a sound of disproval—it was a little different than the ones he usually made, probably because of the throat, and Anakin was both surprised and mildly amused at how deeper it sounded. “That’s cheating.”

“It was going to fall anyways.”

“It was going to fall on its own time.”

“Fine, fine.”

They didn’t say anything for the next few seconds—just observing the leaves falling and catching them as they did. Their little selection of leaves grew from a cluster of two or three to a small pile of six or seven, and then another wind blew, this time carrying with it more leaves and more of a chill.

Which Anakin decided was as good a signal as any for what was about to happen next.

“I know you’re feeling better,” Anakin said, digging his hand back into his cloak pocket, “and I didn’t get this until last night, but…” Anakin wrapped his hand around the small package, tugged out the gift. It was wrapped just loosely in flimsi. “I didn’t have a whole ton of time to actually wrap it either. But I figured…”

He flicked his eyes up to catch Obi-Wan’s stunned expression—and for a brief moment, Anakin wondered if maybe this was stupid, but—

“Anyways,” Anakin said, clearing his throat, “having a cold on your birthday isn’t exactly ideal. So just…next time, make sure that doesn’t happen.” He paused, looked at Obi-Wan again. “I can’t hold onto this forever, you know.”

“No, of course,” Obi-Wan said, and he took the package.

Anakin focused on the leaves sitting between them as he heard the flimsi come apart. He wasn’t surprised to hear the careful unfolding of the flimsi—and Anakin would have rolled his eyes if his stomach wasn’t suddenly knotted, and he wanted to laugh at himself a little at that too, because it wasn’t like presents were _abnormal_ —Obi-Wan had given Anakin a river stone, after all, back when he was young, and there were other little things, too, but—

“You sounded terrible the other day,” Anakin said to the leaves. “Thought a scarf might help. You don’t wear them, but there were some nice ones—Ahsoka told me they were nice, anyways—she helped me pick that one out.”

Actually, Ahsoka had mostly just stood in the background and sighed as Anakin looked down at the scarves. She had practically jumped in relief when Anakin finally picked out the scarf: a blue-grey warm-looking thing that Anakin thought was mild enough to fit his former master.

Obi-Wan held that scarf in his hands now.

Anakin could see that much—he saw Obi-Wan’s hands lightly wrap around the ends of the scarf. He didn’t dare lift his eyes any higher than that. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to look any higher than that, but still, Anakin waited.

Anakin saw Obi-Wan’s hands shift against the scarf. Somewhere, the younglings were laughing again, this time followed by an older master’s quiet warning to _be careful_ , and somewhere else, the leaves of a different tree rustled and fell in their own time.

“Thank you.” Obi-Wan’s voice was quiet.

Anakin felt something loosen in his chest, and he just barely managed to lift his head.

Obi-Wan was smiling at him, and Anakin suddenly felt stupid for being as nervous as he had been just a few moments ago.

“You like it?” Anakin asked slowly.

“Of course I do,” Obi-Wan replied. He slung the scarf around his neck, lifted his eyebrows at Anakin. “Is that surprise I hear, Anakin?”

“No,” Anakin said quickly. “No—definitely not. Definitely…” His voice faded at Obi-Wan’s amused look. Anakin sank back against the bench. “Never mind.”

A quiet laugh from Obi-Wan.

And then, again: “thank you for the gift. I’ll cherish it.”

Anakin lifted his shoulders. He meant it as a casual gesture, but still, he smiled down at the ground.

He knew Obi-Wan was smiling too.

\--

They watched the leaves fall.

**Author's Note:**

> so i had this fic idea in my head for a few months, but now that it's officially autumn, i finally got around to writing it! (also, apparently coruscant does have seasons according to wookiepedia articles shared by some lovely folks on tumblr.)
> 
> i don't really know if obi-wan's birthday falls in autumn, though, but...well, i'm a sucker for obi-wan in the autumn either way. also, apparently, anakin did get obi-wan a gift for his birthday once-a tatooine-woven cloak, i believe? of course, i don't think i can fit a whole cloak inside of another cloak pocket, no matter how deep those things are, so i'll just imagine that anakin got obi-wan a cloak for his birthday in the following year.
> 
> as always, comments/kudos are greatly appreciated!


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